How to resize for YouTube Thumbnail
- Drop your image on the box above, or tap it to choose one.
- Pick a size with the buttons: Thumbnail (1280 × 720), Channel banner (2560 × 1440), Profile picture (800 × 800).
- Keep Crop to fill to fill the frame, or choose Fit inside to keep the whole picture with borders.
- Click Download.
YouTube thumbnail size
YouTube recommends custom thumbnails of 1280 × 720 pixels (16:9), at least 640 pixels wide, in JPG, PNG or GIF format, and under 2 MB. Thumbnails appear everywhere from large TV screens to tiny phone lists, so starting at full size keeps them sharp. The channel banner is 2560 × 1440, but only the centre 1546 × 423 area is safe on all devices, so keep text and faces in the middle.
Choose a size above and drop your image. If your picture is not 16:9, Crop to fill trims the top and bottom or sides evenly, which is usually what you want for screenshots and photos. Save as JPEG at 90% quality: a 1280 × 720 thumbnail is typically 150–400 KB, comfortably under the 2 MB limit. If it is still too big, lower the quality slightly.
Thumbnails with a clear face, high contrast and three or four big words tend to be readable even at the smallest sizes.
FAQ
What size is a YouTube thumbnail?
1280 × 720 pixels with a 16:9 aspect ratio, under 2 MB.
Can I use a vertical image?
Yes, but it will be cropped to 16:9. Use "Fit inside" to keep it whole with side bars instead.
What format should a thumbnail be?
JPG is the safest choice for small file size. PNG is fine for graphics as long as it stays under 2 MB.